As is known in the art, optical links have been used to translate a radio frequency signal to a corresponding optical frequency signal for transmission via an optical transmission media such as a fiber optic cable to a remote receiver and then re-translate such optical frequency signal back to the radio frequency signal at the receiver.
One type of optical link suggested to provide spur-free high dynamic range includes the use of two Mach-Zehnder interferometric modulators in configurations that resulted in the minimization of third-order nonlinear distortion products or the simultaneous minimization of second- and third-order distortion products. The high, spurious-free dynamic range results are however limited to bandwidths of less than 1 GHz. By making use of electro-absorption modulators, it is possible to bias the devices for 3rd or 2nd order distortion reduction, but a compromise is required to address both bandwidth and distortion.
While such links may be useful in some applications, optical links used in the current state of the art have been generally inadequate for radar system applications because such applications require very high, spur-free dynamic range.